Lineup for today

[RedDwarf 1881]

I'm not. Why put Alabi on with 5 minutes to go and trying to protect a 1 goal lead when he could have put Judd or Ogie on to tighten up the defence.

Why have Alibi in the squad let alone play him, what hold has Alabi got over the club I wonder.

I don't understand why he's getting the minutes over Harrold. Ross would've seen how well the latter did at holding the ball up and seeing our the last 10-15 mins of games last season. He's got the nous to draw niggly fouls, strength to hold off tiring defenders and just generally run the clock down.

In comparison neither Wilkinson nor Alabi make the ball "stick" so it keeps coming back. Thin squad cost us a win today imo.

Positives - Ross learnt from the keyboard managers, changed the formation and brought Marsh in with the predicted positive effect

Negatives - Ross doesn't know how to see out a game and his Alabi obsession continues, with predicable results

Go with the same lineup on Tuesday, bit more attacking mindset being at home and I think we can get a result. Sotiriou in for Alabi on the bench and hopefully Brophy back.q

I completely agree . Harrold would be far more effective at holding up play than Alabi . The fact that Alabi keeps getting on in front of Harrold is frustrating and annoying .

[Top of the JES]

Take the point with both hands as I said at HT.

We defended well second half until we made the substitutions and got deeper and deeper we had no out ball, Alabi is a complete waste of space he gave us nothing. Ruel Soitiriou at least has the pace to cause an issue on the break and should be ahead of Alabi every week until January when Alabi simply has to go.

It was much better than last week but we were lucky with both goals tbh.

[Admin]

Apologies for the lack of an exiles thread - have been otherwise detained all day and nowhere near any internet.

[banqo]

Turns out it was NOT madness to leave Clay on the bench and the much derided ( because of his short stature ) Marsh seems to have played well. I did write on this forum when he first signed to give the lad a chance and recalled many midfield players of the past who were short but very good...........but few listened to me !

That's because lots of other people also said that, not only you.

Hardly Rocket Science to think a PL youngster
would do a job down here.

Why the F*ck Clay is not on Bocco for a
month is beyond me

He's just waiting for his visa to come through!

[Howling Mad Murdock]

I pray I don't have to refer to this post come the end of the season.

I doubt it but feel free.

I hope your right .

I'm right,relax.

Apologies for the lack of an exiles thread - have been otherwise detained all day and nowhere near any internet.

The old bill?

[MrB]

Good result...I thought we’d get mullered

[RedDwarf 1881]

I've just taken a look at the League Two table . I'm quite surprised to see we're only two points behind Plymouth . They are many people's tip for promotion this season. At the moment I know it's still early days but it was still a surprise .It would be nice if we could hang onto their coat tails all season. We currently sit in 18th place and if you offered me that end of season finish right now I would take it with both hands . This season I'm just looking for us to consolidate ourselves back in the EFL.

[RedDwarf 1881]

Good result...I thought we’d get mullered

Same here .

[F*ck The Poor & Fat]

Happy with that.

[cockhat]

Anyone know what Dan Happe's family issue was that stopped him playing ?

I would imagine it’s a personal matter!

[ComeOnYouOs]

I would gladly have taken a point before the game, but having been a few mins away from all three points, its mighty disappointing to only get the one

I, like many others on this board, continue to be frustrated by the inclusion of Alabi. He wasnt good enough for National League football, so why does he keep getting game time in a league above?
He shouldnt be near a league 2 squad, and to get the nod in front of Harrold today is worrying
One more thing..........we are conceding too many goals IMO. We need to score 3 or 4 a game to be sure of winning, and were not going to get three or four much.
I still think we are in for a struggle all season

[RedDwarf 1881]

I would gladly have taken a point before the game, but having been a few mins away from all three points, its mighty disappointing to only get the one

I, like many others on this board, continue to be frustrated by the inclusion of Alabi. He wasnt good enough for National League football, so why does he keep getting game time in a league above?
He shouldnt be near a league 2 squad, and to get the nod in front of Harrold today is worrying
One more thing..........we are conceding too many goals IMO. We need to score 3 or 4 a game to be sure of winning, and were not going to get three or four much.
I still think we are in for a struggle all season

I think you're right , we are in for a struggle all season and that's why I will be satisfied just to avoid relegation.

[Sid Bishop]

Clay on the bench is madness.

Turns out it was NOT madness to leave Clay on the bench and the much derided ( because of his short stature ) Marsh seems to have played well. I did write on this forum when he first signed to give the lad a chance and recalled many midfield players of the past who were short but very good...........but few listened to me !

That's because lots of other people also said that, not only you.

Thought you would chip in being as you follow my comments like a little dog, just as you did on the previous forum when you went under your previous silly name !! Anyway, where were YOUR positive comments on Marsh when he first arrived ?

[eagwgw]

The only thing I can think of with Alabi is that there is a chance of him doing the unpredictable, outmuscling someone and setting up a goal.
On his past performances I think we can safely say though that that chance is about 10%!

TBH to use a Ling-ism there is a nucleus of talent here, Angol, Dennis, JMD all quite exciting players. Brophy is inconsistent but a pace merchant is definitely a useful squad player. Wilkinson might also turn out to be good. Potentially Gorman could also be good if he is allowed to attack more. One dynamic midfield player could be the one to make things tick, maybe that is Marsh. At this level, Angol is a 20+ goal striker.

The weakness to me seems to be the defence. There are question marks for me over many of them, yet we seem to have given them all new contracts without seeing first what they could do, and the one that might fare best (Ekpiteta) hasn't got a new deal.

Also I doubt if Ross has the defensive nous to set them up properly, but it seems that he will be part of the coaching set-up whether he succeeds as manager or not.

[Sid Bishop]

Turns out it was NOT madness to leave Clay on the bench and the much derided ( because of his short stature ) Marsh seems to have played well. I did write on this forum when he first signed to give the lad a chance and recalled many midfield players of the past who were short but very good...........but few listened to me !

That's because lots of other people also said that, not only you.

Hardly Rocket Science to think a PL youngster
would do a job down here.

Why the F*ck Clay is not on Bocco for a
month is beyond me

Yet many on this forum put the lad down when he joined us on loan, purely based on his height.
Disoriented was one of the chief moaners about Marsh signing for us, he also stated on this thread that it was MADNESS to start with Clay on the bench !!

[tuffers#1]

That's because lots of other people also said that, not only you.

Hardly Rocket Science to think a PL youngster
would do a job down here.

Why the F*ck Clay is not on Bocco for a
month is beyond me

Yet many on this forum put the lad down when he joined us on loan, purely based his height.
Disoriented was one of the chief moaners about Marsh signing for us, he also stated on this thread that it was MADNESS to start with Clay on the bench !!

He claims to be "learned " , which loosely translates to
"doo doo doo doo
F* ckin clueless
doo doo doo doo
F*ckin clueless".

[Rich Tea Wellin]

Good point.

So strange that our keeper and all our defenders are exactly the same, and everyone thought (me included) were our strongest position going into the season, is shipping goals like nothing.

Perhaps the step up is a bigger step than I thought or we aren’t being organised enough.

[Millennial Snowflake]

Turns out it was NOT madness to leave Clay on the b
Yet many on this forum put the lad down when he joined us on loan, purely based on his height.
Disoriented was one of the chief moaners about Marsh signing for us, he also stated on this thread that it was MADNESS to start with Clay on the bench !!

Disoriented is one of the worst boarders on here and completely clueless about everything though, why would you listen to him?

Good point.

So strange that our keeper and all our defenders are exactly the same, and everyone thought (me included) were our strongest position going into the season, is shipping goals like nothing.

Perhaps the step up is a bigger step than I thought or we aren’t being organised enough.

But players in other positions are stepping up. I think the more likely conclusion is that they aren’t as good as many thought they were.

[Thor]

A good defence does not turn bad over night, what goes wrong is the coaching and what they are being asked to do.

Last season around xmas time we started shipping goals and you could see that JE got them out on the training pitch and worked on shape, positioning etc. And then we had a few games of not conceding again and the defensive unit went back to being solid. It takes work and direction.

It seems to me from the games I've been to the shape, positioning and instructions have changed from what they were being asked last season. For example last week it was pretty clear that even after just 3 mins the instruction was to not press the opposition. That's a massive change and invites pressure on to the back line.

[Millennial Snowflake]

And we have a completely new strikeforce when last season we had one that could take a massive amount of pressure off the defence. And we’re playing a different system.

It’s a combination of many things. And remember everyone has defensive responsibilities, not just the back four.

[Rich Tea Wellin]

Yeah, and they barely get any cover from our midfield

[tuffers#1]

A good defence does not turn bad over night, what goes wrong is the coaching and what they are being asked to do.

Last season around xmas time we started shipping goals and you could see that JE got them out on the training pitch and worked on shape, positioning etc. And then we had a few games of not conceding again and the defensive unit went back to being solid. It takes work and direction.

It seems to me from the games I've been to the shape, positioning and instructions have changed from what they were being asked last season. For example last week it was pretty clear that even after just 3 mins the instruction was to not press the opposition. That's a massive change and invites pressure on to the back line.

The shape & positioning go out the window when
better players are going through them.

It's a case of readjusting to a higher quality &
learning as you go.

Bit like when JE 1st took over in 2017 .
Got us decent but inconsistent.
Ww dd ll wlddwl kind of thing.

[Sid Bishop]

A good defence does not turn bad over night, what goes wrong is the coaching and what they are being asked to do.

Last season around xmas time we started shipping goals and you could see that JE got them out on the training pitch and worked on shape, positioning etc. And then we had a few games of not conceding again and the defensive unit went back to being solid. It takes work and direction.

It seems to me from the games I've been to the shape, positioning and instructions have changed from what they were being asked last season. For example last week it was pretty clear that even after just 3 mins the instruction was to not press the opposition. That's a massive change and invites pressure on to the back line.

The big difference being in that JE was an experienced manager who had played as a defender in the Premier league and knew how to set up teams, especially defensively as against RE who is far less experienced in football management and was never good enough as a player to have played in any of the English Football League teams.

[Smendrick Feaselberg]

Turns out it was NOT madness to leave Clay on the bench and the much derided ( because of his short stature ) Marsh seems to have played well. I did write on this forum when he first signed to give the lad a chance and recalled many midfield players of the past who were short but very good...........but few listened to me !

That's because lots of other people also said that, not only you.

Thought you would chip in being as you follow my comments like a little dog, just as you did on the previous forum when you went under your previous silly name !! Anyway, where were YOUR positive comments on Marsh when he first arrived ?

It has nothing to do with who you are. If I see something like this I'll reply to it.

I'm not sure why you are asking what I said. My comment was about several people making positive comments. I didn't express a view either way as I don't have to immediately (or even ever) have an opinion on everything.

[Smendrick Feaselberg]

A good defence does not turn bad over night, what goes wrong is the coaching and what they are being asked to do.

Last season around xmas time we started shipping goals and you could see that JE got them out on the training pitch and worked on shape, positioning etc. And then we had a few games of not conceding again and the defensive unit went back to being solid. It takes work and direction.

It seems to me from the games I've been to the shape, positioning and instructions have changed from what they were being asked last season. For example last week it was pretty clear that even after just 3 mins the instruction was to not press the opposition. That's a massive change and invites pressure on to the back line.

The big difference being in that JE was an experienced manager who had played as a defender in the Premier league and knew how to set up teams, especially defensively as against RE who is far less experienced in football management and was never good enough as a player to have played in any of the English Football League teams.

Not sure that's relevant though. The standard of past football career is not necessarily an indicator of whether someone is a good manager/able to set up a team more effectively.